James and the Giant Peach

By Roald Dahl

Copyright 1961

 James, a young orphan boy from the English countryside, desperately longs for friendship.  He fondly remembers a time when he lived with his parents and had playmates and laughter in his life.  But there he is, stuck now with his two abusive aunts, with seemingly no way out.  One day, a mysterious man gives him a bag full of magical iridescent crystals that are sure to grant him all the happiness he desires.  James trips while running with the bag and tragically spills all the magic out upon the ground.  He again resigns himself to a life of misery and loneliness.  The magic was not all lost, though.  The crystals soaked into the ground near an old peach tree which magically grew a great, enormous peach.

The peach, which grew to the size of a house, was a marvelous way for the cruel aunts to make money.  That is, until the day it fell off the tree and rolled over the aunts, flattening them dead.  Little did anyone know that just before that happened, James had entered into the peach through a tunnel and was firmly in the middle of the pit as it rolled away. 

What James found in the peach was his dream come true, for sitting inside that peach house was a group of friends.  They happened to be giant talking insects, some even larger than James, but they were friends nonetheless.  Giant Grasshopper, Ladybug, Centipede, Earthworm, Glow-worm, Spider, and Silkworm made for a diverse, sometimes argumentative, but all around supportive family group.  They had many harrowing adventures, travelling the world in a difficult to control peach house, and ultimately landed safely in New York City.

James and the Giant Peach gives an important lesson for today.  Diversity is a wonderful thing!  James and his diverse group of friends accepted each other, relied on each other’s different strengths and talents, and lived together peacefully as friends.  Without relying on each other, they would have surely died on their journey.  Banded together, they formed a strong alliance that was able to overcome all obstacles.